Movie Review: “Dog Food” Delivers A Tasty Treat

James is a Movie Critic and Celebrity Interviewer with over 30 years of experience as an Award-Winning Filmmaker.

A butcher loses his dog.

Amanda Seyfried is an actress who has appeared alongside some of the industry’s biggest names: Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep and Channing Tatum, to name but a few. With “Dog Food”, she appears as a co-star in an 18-minute short rather than the star of the movie and may have done it as a favor for the director or the producer, possibly friends of hers. Whatever the reason, I have to admire her for participating when so many A-listers fervently persevere with feature films only.

The movie introduces us to Declan (Cory Michael Smith), a young single man who lives with his pet dog Ralphie. He lives in a small town and is the resident butcher. He begins receiving threatening letters in his mailbox and oblivious as to who the culprit is, he has no choice but to get on with his daily routine and one day, the beautiful Eva (Amanda Seyfried) visits his shop and requests various meats as she will be entertaining some friends on the weekend.

Eva and Declan are immediately smitten with each other but lacking the courage to ask her out, all he can do is watch her leave. When he gets home though, his front door is ajar and he searches his place but Ralphie is nowhere to be found. He frantically searches the nearby streets and shelters but his dog is long gone. A few days later, Eva turns up at his shop and, having seen his lost ads all over town, exudes sympathy for him and asks him if he’d like to come to her place for dinner.

He agrees and when he arrives later that evening, he is met at the door by Michael (David Joseph Craig), Eva’s brother. It is quite obvious that he doesn’t care for Declan but the evening advances forward and with every dish Eva serves, Declan is at a loss for words, unable to assess the different varieties of meat on his plate. As the meal nears an end, he takes a bite out of something indistinguishable and realizing that it is the tail of some sort of animal, both Michael and Eva’s true intentions come out.

You kind of know, from the beginning, where the film is heading but there is a nice little twist at the very end that some won’t be anticipating. One could say that this is a film against animal cruelty but the way I see it is, don’t be so sure of yourself and your motivations because appearances can be very misleading. Oh, and don’t screw around with the local butcher and his dog. The movie sprints along at a fine pace and the performances by the three actors involved are good, with some nice camera work by cinematographer Adam Bricker.

“Dog Food” recently won the best horror thriller at Comic Con and you can watch the full movie below